Yerba Buena Island sits in the
San Francisco Bay between
San Francisco and
Oakland, California. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. It has had several other names over the decades:
Sea Bird Island,
Wood Island, and
Goat Island. The island is named after the town of
Yerba Buena, which was named for the plant of the same name that was abundant in the area. The plant's English and Spanish common name,
Yerba buena, is an alternate form of the
Spanish hierba buena (literally meaning "good herb"), generally used to describe local species of the
mint family.